


The Heart and Soul of Egoton

by Inkribbon796



Series: Masks and Maladies [49]
Category: Jacksepticeye Fandom, Markiplier fandom - Fandom, Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, Mother hen Henrik, cork board of madness, heroes being heroes, they’re trying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-25
Updated: 2020-01-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:54:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22399675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inkribbon796/pseuds/Inkribbon796
Summary: Looking for clues, the heroes hold a meeting to trade information and meet a couple friendly faces they haven’t met in a while.
Series: Masks and Maladies [49]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1538131
Comments: 2
Kudos: 49





	1. Heroes are Fire Hazards

It was around midday in the base the Heroes’ Coalition used as a safe house and an information hub. In the kitchen was the minor fiasco of three heroes trying to get coffee ready for a massive meeting because, by Roman’s own admission, the coffee he conjured up tended to tasted bland and watery. Only Remy had the ability to actually conjure up good coffee, but Logan wasn’t around to tell them he wasn’t fusing for the sake of coffee.

So the coffee fiasco continued. Virgil had two pots of coffee in his hands.

“Do you think this is a bit much?” Anxiety asked Eric. The three of them were running the coffee machine and were trying to keep several pots of coffee warm.

“Roman said there were going to be a lot of people there,” Eric told him, his tone a little shaky.

“Silver’s pals are all coming in,” Jack warned. “Mark might not take a coffee, but some of his friends will.” Jackieboy, trying not to spook Virgil or Eric by moving too quickly, zipped away with the coffee pots.

Then there was a loud thud, almost as if some heavy cabinet or a piano had been thrown against the wall. Several things in the room shook and Virgil looked around.

“W-What was th-at?” Eric stammered nervously.

“Dunna,” Jackie answered, “give me a sec.”

The speedster dashed off, clearly intending to search the base. Then he rushed back in with a giddy look in his eyes. “They’re back, come on, Eric you didn’t get to meet them last time.”

“Who?” Eric asked, Virgil nervously starting looking for the closest exit.

“Virge, come on, you’ll like them,” Jack turned to Virgil with that same smile. “Don’t worry about that noise, it was just one of the guys didn’t know we closed up some of the hanger bay and overshot a little bit.”

“Is anything damaged?” Virgil asked.

“Ehh, Marvin put out the fire, but other than that no,” Jackie admitted.

“The fire?” Eric asked.

“Like I said, it’s taken care of, an’ we used to get way worse back in the day. Why do ye think we don’t take the plane out every chance we get?” Jackie was suddenly too dismissive for Anxiety’s liking.

“I figured it was the price of plane fuel,” Virgil jabbed.

“Yeah, that too,” Jack admitted, “just come on. They’re some old Coalition guys that really were palling around with us back in the days.

“Yeah, fine,” Anxiety grumbled, and reluctantly followed Jackieboy and Eric out to what Logan had introduced to him as  _ “the fire hazard everyone calls a garage” _ .

So Virgil had stayed away from the place, and walking in he could see some scorch marks in the wall of the large underground garage. Some looked old, others looked suspiciously recent. But two masked heroes were standing looking at a new-looking series of scorch marks. One with curly light brown hair, heavier set than his friend. His outfits consisted mostly of purples, with a cape. The second hero had a visor covering his eyes, his outfit mostly in reds and oranges. Both of them were taller than Virgil was.

Trying to hang behind the others, Virgil tried to use Jackie as a buffer. Not as a meat shield, because Jackie was much faster, but enough time to run with Eric.

“Heya, boys!” Jackie whistled and yelled out.

The two heroes turned and smiled at Jackieboy.

“Jackaboy,” the light brown, curly haired hero greeted with a warm smile.

“Hey, man,” Jackie zipped over and slammed his fists several times into the taller hero, small barriers meeting his fists every time he tried to hit him. “How’s it hanging yah big lug.”

The taller hero managed to grab Jack and throw himself into the hero with a visor. Jack screamed in shock and surprise, turning into water and Jack hit the ground. The hero reformed and looked over at the speedster. “Give me some warning.”

“Sorry, next time I’ll hit you faster,” he scoffed.

“Hey, asshat!” Silver called out and flew through the door, pushing Virgil and Eric aside. The two newer heroes heard the impact as Silver slammed into the still-masked hero. Silver still in his civilian clothes. “Where’ve you been?”

“Nowhere,” the bigger hero smiled at Mark, grabbing him and throwing him down at the ground. Mark had a giant grin as he slipped away and kneed his opponent in the side. Jack and the hero that had turned to water were starting to spar, Jack trying to actually get a hit on him before he turned into water.

Virgil leaned over to Eric, whispering quietly, “Do you know them?”

“Yeah, they’re some of the older Coalition guys,” Eric whispered back, “but they tend to do their, uh, own stuff with Silver these days.”

“Dogpile!” Ethan called over, still in his grey and blue costume as he ran in and jumped on Mark.

“Get off me,” Mark shouted, trying to throw Ethan back off.

“Come on,” Ethan cajoled, as he got both himself and Mark tackled to the ground.

“Ethan, get your hands off me,” Mark shouted.

“No,” Ethan jabbed back, but Mark was able to free himself, flying up in the air and out of reach. “Mark, you never let me love you.”

“That’s because you’re doing it to stir shit.” Mark ordered. “Don’t touch me.”

“Mark?” Virgil repeated.

“Hah!” Mark shouted in triumph. “I’d like to see you get me up here.”

The water-based hero threw a large glob of water at Mark, chuckling. It made the superhero drag his hand down his face to dry it. “Ugh, are you kidding me.”

“How you doing, big guy?” Bob, the curly haired hero, asked Mark.

“Oh, you know,” Mark shrugged, still floating out of reach. “Same old town, same ol’ Dark.”

“Didn’t you say you’d have his network dismantled in five years?” Wade, the water-based hero jabbed.

“Hey, turns out you can’t just try and dismantle a mob boss without fifteen vultures cropping up to clean the bones,” Mark defended. “I don’t see you guys sticking around to help.

“Hey, looks like you guys got some new kids,” Bob smiled over at Eric and Virgil. He walked over and extended out his hand. “Name’s Gatling.”

Eric nervously ducked behind Virgil, which the anxious hero finding that nerve-wracking and ironic.

“Anxiety,” Virgil took his hand. “What’s your power?”

“Impenetrable barriers,” Bob grinned.

“Why’s your name Gatling then?” Virgil asked. “Can you fire lasers?”

“Not even in the slightest,” he grinned. “But it keeps Dark’s chumps guessing.”

“Sounds neat,” Eric said, peeking out from behind Virgil.

“So who’s the proud dad?” Bob looked back at Silver.

“Iplier brought them in,” Mark floated a little bit closer.

Wade whistled, “What does this make? Ten?”

“Six, dude’s a good judge of character,” Mark corrected as he looked around. “Where’s Tyler?”

“He’ll swing by, but dude’s been busy,” Bob shrugged. “Said he’d be running late.”

“Probably won’t be the only one,” Mark dismissed. “When he comes in, he knows the way. Although he could be with two of the Sides’ group keeping up, Roman said they were going to keep watch over the city.”

“Is it Joan?” Virgil asked.

“No,” Mark answered. “”They’re with Roman and Patton. Don’t know where they are right now.”

“Okay,” Virgil admittedly felt a bit better knowing that Joan was going to be with them. He always felt better with Joan around, which was probably a residual effect of who Virgil was than Joan themselves. “Where’s the meeting?”

“You ever seen the storage closet, the room King’s usually in?” Mark told him.

Virgil shrugged.

“It’s got the hole in the wall near the top of the frame?” Mark clarified.

Virgil nodded, then asked, “Wait, who did that?”

The senior hero’s mouth formed a tight line, there was a certain guilty air about it. “Doesn’t matter. The meeting room is directly across the hall from it.”

“Geez,” Bob spoke up. “What else did you break?”

“Not my fault, I was taken over by zombism,” Silver defended hotly. “The fact I missed Jack is the good thing.”

“Doc give you your rabies shots for that?” Bob chuckled. “Please tell me you haven’t eaten the furniture.”

“It was bad,” Ethan spoke up, a huge smile on his face as Silver took a deep breath. “He had to get a lot of transfusions, they almost replaced all of his blood. We built a panic bunker to hold him until the infection ran its course.”

“Good to know the docs can cure a zombie plague,” Wade commented.

“They can now,” Mark clapped his hands to bring attention back to him. “Let’s go before they start without us.”

Gatling, and as he introduced himself to Eric and Virgil: the Drowned Man, kept ribbing at Silver. They did start to actually make their way to the meeting room. Virgil hanging in the back to avoid getting caught up the inevitable wrestling that tended to happen as Mark argued with his friends.


	2. Meeting in the Middle

Inside the meeting room everyone was talking, Virgil felt a little nervous. Dr. Iplier helped Virgil get a chair at the edge of the table. Silver and Jackie had been friendly to him but they tended to get more than a bit loud and Virgil was glad he wasn’t seated between even people he knew. Even if Patton was trying to save a seat for him.

Silver walked out to take a call before coming back in. “Okay, so Amy isn’t coming in, she wants to take care of something in town, but told me to take notes for her.”

“That’s fair,” Jack shrugged. “She sure she doesn’t need help.”

“I offered, she said she had enough hands on deck,” Silver reported.

“Well at least we’re all not here letting Egoton tear itself apart,” Abe yelled, he was at a large cork board putting stuff up all over it with Bing and Joan. There were pictures and papers all over the cork board, dozens of colored string connecting them.

“We picked a slow day for a reason,” Silver reminded. “Wil’s out of town and Nate seems to have taken his doppelganger with him. This is the best chance we’ve got to do this.”

“Doesn’t mean I like it,” Abe responded. “I should be out there chasing Warfstache, hell only knows what he’s up to.”

“Fookin’ married folk and killin’ people,” Chase answered. “Exactly the same thin’ he’s always doin’.”

Abe motioned with his hands to Chase and gave Mark one of his wide-eyed expectant stares.

“We’ll make it short and you can start chasing him,” Mark promised.

“I better get out of here ASAP,” Abe decided.

“Hey, wise guy,” Marvin walked in with Robbie who immediately hobbled over excitedly to Henrik who, much like a mother hen, frantically checked to see if he was still all in one piece. The German doctor glared at Marvin when he saw that his ear was in danger of falling off. “We all got shit ta do.”

“Vhat did you do to him?” Henrik barked.

“Calm yer shit, mom,” Marvin rolled his eyes, even if no one could really see it through the mask, it could almost be heard in his voice. “He came to me like that, don’t know what he was up to.”

“I help Marv,” Robbie smiled.

Marvin glared at the zombie, sighing, “When ye say it like that, it’s like I’m the bad guy.”

Henrik was still glaring at him.

“I didn’t do anythin’ to him,” Marv defended, taking a seat that let him put the table in-between the magician and the two doctors. “I wouldn’t.”

“I do good?” Robbie asked as Henrik directed him to sit next to him.

“Ja, ja,” Henrik sighed and started stitching his ear back on. “Sit still vill you?”

“I tried,” Marvin told Henrik. Then he leaned back in his chair to look up and down the table. Even standing up a bit to get another good luck at everyone at the table.

The magician’s eyes couldn’t be seen that well, but Virgil knew a hostile stance when he saw one.

“What’s up Marv?” Chase asked, he and J.J were directly across the table from him. J.J’s pocket watch in his hand, as if braced for something to happen.

“S’nothin’,” Marvin decided, sitting back down, watching J.J intently. “Prolly just my imagination.”

J.J was still turning the pocket watch around. Marvin did pass him a message under the table that read,  _ “Do that again, and I’ll eat all your cheetos, you arse” _ .

J.J snickered to himself in amusement, pocketing the note so even Chase didn’t have the opportunity to read.”

“What?” Chase asked.

__ _ “Nothing,” _ J.J sighed.  _ “Marvin is funny.” _

After about fifteen minutes, Logan came in looking like he’d been running at a full sprint and was frantically trying not to show it. The Host followed at a much slower pace.

“The Host said we would be on time,” the Host smiled.

“Inexcusable,” Logan straightened his tie and glasses. “We are late. I am not a tardy person.”

Marvin leaned back in his chair, Virgil noticed that he looked like he wanted to say something but kept quiet.

“If it eases Logic’s conscious, he can blame the Host, he was distracted and did not keep travel time in mind,” the Host talked as he walked over to the end of the table where King was. Taking his usual seat directly across from Dr. Iplier. He was muttering narrations as he went. Most of his comments were listing off people who were muttering under their breath or looking at him and Logan.

“Lo, it wasn’t that long, we haven’t even started yet,” Patton tried to calm Logan.

“One minute is tardy, the Host and I are inexcusably late,” Logan corrected. “This meeting should have begun without us.”

“Too bad,” Marvin finally spoke up, his tone firm and a bit hostile.

Logan gave him a questioning and confused look as he went to sit in-between Host and King.

“Alright, so we’re all here?” Abe finally said. “Good, sooner we get all this done, the better. First order of business is this eyesore.”

The detective stomped over to point at Bim’s picture on the wall. He was close to the center of the mess on the cork board. It looked like a theater head shot. “This little asshole is part of the League, and Dark is covering for him to keep him from being identified.”

“How sure are we that he’s the Dorm 5 Killer?” Jack asked. “Cause the sooner we put that bastard away the better.”

“If it’s not him, it’s Dark and Wilford combined and the D5’s M.O is nowhere close to theirs. They’d just announce themselves and be done with it and we’d know.”

“What do we need to actually put this guy behind bars? Cause the last time we tried to take someone in on what we thought was enough evidence, they got to walk.” Ethan reminded, picking at his lip. “I don’t want that again.”

“As gruesome as it sounds?” Mark intervened. “A body? A murder weapon? We need something other than they just ran away. A case can be made for two of the guys, but we’ve got four people who are just gone that their families and their friends swear up and down that they would never run away. Something happened to them, they have too much to run away from.”

“What exactly do we know about this guy?” Bob asked. “I leave for a couple months and suddenly we’ve got a serial killer on our hands?”

“As far as the news an’ public know he’s been operatin’ fer about five months,” Jackie answered. “But he’s probably been at this fer longer. We don’t know how long.”

“Five bucks said he’s been preying on the homeless and transient people in the city,” King agreed. “Not even I know how many people come and go unnoticed in the city. And I’ve only been at my job for two years. Anyone could be killing or taking advantage of them and people would never know.”

“Ugh, that’s depressin’,” Jack took a steadying breath. All the heroes looking varying mixes of guilty and uncomfortable.

“Is there anyone who would have tabs on this trimmer guy Trimmer?” Wade asked.

“Warfstache,” Abe proposed. “He’s under the same media umbrella as Wil, but he probably wouldn’t be able to tell us anything before stabbing us. Plus, if he is his kid and under Dark’s protection, the last thing we want to do is alert Dark that we’re tailing the kid.”

“That’s still wild,” Ethan rubbed at his face. “I can’t see him with a kid.”

“Damn right,” Abe agreed. “Look, I’ve been chasing Wil’s ass since I joined the force, an’ let me tell you, the man’s not the fatherly type. It amazes me that this kid even survived to adulthood.”

“Probably no credit to that maniac,” Wade scoffed.

King actively bit his tongue and glared at his hands.

“Dark is most likely the reason he’s alive,” Dr. Iplier spoke up. “He’s anal-retentive enough to step on Wilford’s toes if he does something he doesn’t like.”

“Wouldn’t surprise me if this kid isn’t the end of it, Wil’s got other kids and for some reason Dark cares about this one,” Abe leaned over the table. “Probably has some superpower and the others just don’t.”

“They might not know, or something could have happened to them,” Roman answered.

“Could be,” Joan agreed. “Not much we can do about the kid until we can get a hold of him to answer him? Have we been able to get a hold of him?”

“Every time we’ve tried he’s either been on set or absolutely nowhere, cause we can’t find him,” Marvin groaned. “His aura dead ends mid-room. Prolly Dark portin’ him out.”

“Ye know,” Chase began. “We might be able ta get a backdoor if we can catch Wilford with Damien. Still need to find a way to check in on that one. If he’s not drumi n’ ta Dark’s beat, we can at least have that off the table.”

“How are we going to prove that?” Mark shouted.

“I could do it,” Ethan offered. “If I’ve got time to brace even Dark can’t see me. So there’s no reason why Wilford should spot me.”

“You sure that’s a good idea?” King asked.

“The Host agrees with King,” Host interjected. “What Crank suggests can only lead to a violent confrontation.”

“Come on, it’s Damien, what have I got to be afraid of?” Ethan scoffed.

“Here, we can come up with some kind of a shield he can break out if he’s caught by one of them,” Marvin spoke up. “I want some loose ends tied off.”

The Host’s mouth became a thin line, his bandages starting to dark with blood. “That . . . might just be enough.”

“Okay, so I’ve got Damien, what are we going to do about Ed?” Ethan asked. “Cause I’m not comfortable with the fact that I used to live by a child trafficking ring. Like, at all.”

“Run us through exactly what Ed said,” Mark looked at Patton.

“To wash the site, and some of his guys didn’t like that,” Patton answered. “Ed ordered them to do it because Dark wanted it taken care of, even if it was an L.O site. Whatever that is.”

“Okay,” Mark seemed to thinking through something in his head. “Was there any clue about what that means?”

Patton shook his head.

“Mean love?” Robbie inquired, looking at Bing.

“If it does, I’ll eat my entire microprocessor, dude,” Bing answered.

“Hey, hot shot,” Joan looked over at King, their head tilting. “Do you remember anything in the books you used to manage about a L.O?”

“Unless it’s a name, no?” The animal magnet answered. “Cause those are the types of books I worked. I did inventory and reports on people, but I only know them by their initials, not by their faces or actual names. Dark never worked like that. At best, he used code names and hell I never learned what some of those meant, I just had to track what resources they had.”

“How many do you remember?” Ethan drumming his fingers once or twice.

“Probably about five names, but it sounds like you’re looking for an  _ it _ , not a  _ who _ .” King looked at the board full of papers and strings. “Maybe it’s a designation. You guys said That Ed was there, maybe it just part of his absolutely awful trafficking ring and less to do with Dark.”

“Then why would Dark order the site destroyed if it was disturbed,” Bob asked. “Dark doesn’t do anything unless it benefits him. I know, I used to get into fights with him and Warfstache. Wil and Anti are impulsive, Dark isn’t.”

“Perhaps there’s some book that could be traced back to him in the building or in an underground basement,” Logan suggested. “If Ed’s network could be traced back to specific areas Dark owns it gives us and the police grounds to have the place searched.”

“As if we don’t already,” Roman refuted. “He launders money and moves illegal firearms through the city and to the rest of the country. What difference does child trafficking make in the face of all the people he’s killed and the children he’s left orphaned. Dark and his cronies are enough of scumbags?”

“Well there must be some reason,” Logan looked back at Roman, the creative Side’s eyes scrutinizing him. “Dark is a creature of habit, he is observed doing and being at places on a daily basis. There must be some greater reason. The influencing needs must be either: emotional, physical, or monetary. We know he is an enemy of the public, so he must have ordered the site’s termination for some reason.”

“Dark’s only known emotions are rage and spite,” Mark scoffed.

“There must be some reason,” Logan seemed to get frustrated with something. “There has to be.”

Then Logan seemed to think on it, “Why  _ would _ Dark take in a child and cultivate that child to adulthood? Perhaps we are asking the wrong question.”

“Well, I’ve got a crackpot theory that might mean nothing, but I’ll shoot,” Iplier answered. “I’ve been talking with the Detective and he might be doing it to have more control over Wilford and the town.”

“Vhy?” Henrik looked at his colleague. “Doesn’t he have zat zrough nepotism already.”

“If the paper trail’s wrong, nothing changes,” Iplier sighed. “If it’s right, Dark could sweep up even more of Egoton, so long as Trimmer is Wil’s kid, and Wil is a Barnum.”

“Fuck!” Mark swore, cradling his head in his hands. “No! Tell me you’re joking me.”

Iplier looked at Abe. Ethan, Bob, and Wade seemed equally distressed.

“Okay, is this an Egoton thing because that name’s not ringing any bells,” Patton smiled.

“Alright, long story,” Mark warned. “There’s three big rich families that all kinda disappeared about the same time. Barnum, Doomstrum, and Iplier.”

“Iplier?” Logan looked over at Dr. Iplier.

The American doctor shrugged dismissively, “My dad married in. Iplier might as well be a dead name.”

“So, the Doomstrums, the ones who owned the lake, were practicing some really shady stuff,” Mark relayed. “They might have even been the ones to bring Dark to Egoton in the first place. But they took all their wealth, and all the Barnum’s wealth and kinda time capsuled it with blood magic. Don’t know why, maybe because they knew Dark was on his way? But if a Barnum could access it, that combined wealth is a ridiculous amount of money, enough to buy up whatever parts of the city Dark doesn’t already have, and probably parts of the rest of all the other sectors with little resistance.”

Jack paled at that, “I can already think of three gangs who would jump ship at that.”

King looked over at Host, whispering, “Did you know about this?”

“The Author did not,” Host answered. “The Host does.”

“Why the wait?” Logan leaped out of his chair, as if he couldn’t stand being contained by it anymore. “If his aim is more accrued wealth, why not have Warfstache access it decades ago?”

“Don’t know,” Iplier asked. “We just found this out. Maybe the person who unlocks it has to be a Doomstrum too, maybe that’s why Dark kept  _ this _ kid and not any other and Dark bought the mom off?”

Suddenly, Patton had an idea. He could almost audibly hear the light bulb going off in his head. “It’s Celine.”

Everyone snapped to look at him.

“What?” Jack asked.

“Think about it,” Patton began to ramble. “If Celine’s the mom that explains why she was here a couple months ago instead of when her kid was plastered all over the news. How Damien could be involved without Dark having to pay him off. He’s not being bribed, he’s probably being threatened. Because if, like the Doc said and he needs a Doomstrum too, then he needs the mom close enough to give him the kiddo in the first place, but easy to push out of the way.”

“That’s a lot of ifs,” Mark reminded.

“Celine is working with Dark, I don’t know how to prove it but she is,” Patton began to spiral. “Call it intuition or gut, but I can feel it.”

“Okay, well, feelings aren’t going to arrest someone who is, by all accounts, not in town anymore,” Mark said.

“I could find out,” Logan blurted out.

The room went quiet.

“How?” Marvin hyper focused on the logical Side.

“I’m probably the only one who could figure out,” Logan began to ramble under his breath, as if he didn’t hear the magician. “My position would certainly help me look, even if it is 

A risky venture.”

“Hey, genius, what’s that supposed ta mean?” Marvin demanded.

J.J set his pocket watch on the table, loudly knocking to get everyone’s attention. Then he started signing where everyone could see.  _ “We need to end the meeting. I don’t want to have this meeting a third time.” _

“Third time?” Joan repeated in confusion and concern.

“Come on,” Marvin argued. “Ye can’t be serious.”

J.J stood up and signed something at Logan, Chase needing to translate it when it was clear Logan couldn’t understand it.  _ “Return to work. Be careful.” _

Logan stopped his rambling, and signed one of the few things he actually knew in sign language. “Thank you.”

Then he seemed to collect himself, speaking, “Your right, I’m probably just tired.”

Finally Logan left, Patton racing after him. “Lo, wait up.”

Roman stood up, “We have anything else to talk about?”

“We’re probably good enough,” Mark looked over at Abe and scanned the rest of the room. “Inheritance scheme or not, we need to get back to work.”

“Yeah, that bubblegum maniac won’t catch himself,” Abe agreed. “We can leave this up for everyone else.

Slowly the room began to pack up except for the cork board. The tension in the room between Marvin and the Host almost palpable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Non-Spoiler Alert* Mark’s gonna be waiting a long time on those bodies.


End file.
